Thursday Next

@Dean most likely not solely defined by making profit. But if you distribute at cost and say that you are trying to get a message out and that this is how you are expressing yourself then you'd be in a pretty grey area. You'd need a test case to be sure. This applies less to games as in most of Europe they are under a voluntary system. In the UK PEGI is covered by the VRA, but even there games companies have a lot of wiggle room. For example, despite approaching parity (certainly with DS games) most mobile / tablet titles are not rated.

I love this place!

The move must have been in the offing for some time. You don't jump into a CEO job overnight. I reckon they just stepped up the timetable considerably so that they could parade a head on a spike.

I'm pretty sure distributing for cost would not be in the furtherance of business. Business is not being furthered. The wording "in the course or furtherance of business" comes from Tax law, and if you are non-profit then you are tax exempt. I'd say that there's a pretty good chance that it's a loophole you could jump through.

Good question. If you wanted to read it as harshly as possible, "furtherance of business" could even be extended to self promotion which would make distributing the stuff even for free prohibited (but I think that would go too far).

The biggest benefit (imho) is that all multiplayer games on Xbox One will have dedicated servers by default. This benefits players as there is no more Peer-to-Peer, so no host migration due to rage quitting etc. This also benefits devs as it won't cost them as much as Azure will ramp the number of virtual servers up and down on the fly based on the number of users. This means devs get charged for the number of people playing their game on the server at a given time, rather than paying for enough servers to accommodate your PSU, it also means that if a game goes from fairly popular to hugely popular overnight, they don't have to scramble to get more hardware in place for the new users. Actually running the client from the cloud though... Not sure on that. Caching, procedurally generating worlds, stuff like that. Fine. But handling all the client side stuff in a multiplayer game... I doubt it.

Called it!

None of this factors in the INFINITE POWER OF THE CLOUD™. Which will of course make up for all the shortfalls because... reasons.

No one is preventing anyone from distributing anything. Tom Six is just not allowed to sell it. If his "speech" carries an important message that the world needs to hear then he can give his film to anyone he likes. The VRA 1984 says "The supply of a video recording by any person is an exempted supply if it is neither (a) a supply for reward, nor (b)a supply in the course or furtherance of a business."

Ethan can confirm this for US, but in the UK not reading stuff is only excluded as a defence if you have had a chance to read it. For example, if you get the terms of sale on the back of a receipt after you have made a purchase, then, in the UK at least, those terms would be totally unenforceable. Similarly, if the terms are not accessible without having to go out and purchase (or already own) extra, unrelated equipment, like a PC, then they won't be enforceable.

Yes! That's the perfect solution! Only people with PC's and Laptops should have consumer rights. Unless of course, you plug in the console, turn it on and it goes *bang*, or doesn't even boot, before Sony are able to take possession of your faecal matter for any purposes legal or otherwise. Then you have to rely on the paper manual.

It's not about depicting drug use. It's specifically banning promoting drug use by giving it a positive effect with no detriment. For example, Snake is allowed to smoke in MGS, this can carry a positive effect making lasers visible, but it causes his health to drop. In the US, tobacco advertising is strictly regulated to the point of being almost impossible.

I would love it if their "super always connected box" lacked even the most rudimentary of internet connection technology.

Same principle, there's only one M25 (thank the gods), so it's "The M25". If you were to read the initial in full then it would sound odd "The motorway twenty five". Just down to preference I suppose.

Surely that's down to there being one I-95, so "The" I-95 while there are multiple "Broadway Drives", "Rosemary Avenues" and such? I assume you say "The USA" and "The UK".

I'd essentially be a dictator, but my ideas are great so everyone would be fine with it. Although, the first 6-12 months would be messy while undesirables were rounded up and... dealt with.

Appreciate that, and I'm not taking any of it personally. No country is perfect. I happen to like our way. I'm more than happy for us to have differing opinions on the subject.

Re: Manuals as Dean says, it's for warranty, eula, ToS, etc. If you don't have a PC, and you plug in your PS4 and it goes *bang* a USB stick is not going to help you. A paper manual will. Also, you have to be able to read the legal gubbins before activation for it to even have a chance of being enforceable.

Gay marriage is not illegal. It's not prohibited by law, it's just not recognised. By your logic "inciting imminent lawless action" is just as meaningless as other forms of hate speech. Since just because the imminent action is lawless doesn't make it wrong. As Dean says the difference is deeply cultural. I don't think I am oppressed just because a government funded organisation (very) rarely says "this film is too obscene, you can't sell it here." The important stuff, the freedom to protest and all that jazz is well recognised and I would argue that the UK is in practical terms far less oppressed than America, especially given the conduct of the US police during the occupy protests and the apparent complete lack of investigation or reprimand for those involved. In my opinion Americans as a nation take some freedoms too seriously, the freedom to not wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle for example is a stupid, pointless freedom that confers no benefit and carries a huge risk. Yes being truly free does mean having the freedom to act like an imbecile, but that doesn't mean that it's right, any more than something being illegal means it is wrong.

Conceptually it's the same as banning hate speech. Just as saying "This guy is a muslim and therefore you should kill him." is illegal, so is saying "Heroin is really good and you gives you super powers." Not saying that that makes it ok, just that's the place that the law is coming from. Most laws that are enacted to protect people do so by curtailing the rights of some in one way or another.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/26/wendy-davis-abortion-filibuster-chaos Find it odd that you can declare "I am going to waste everyone's time for the next 10 hours." Why not just accept that the person who is going to do it did it and have the vote fail?

Ok yeah, that's a bit much. There's clearly no secksual intent there. It's puerile and childish and crass and tasteless. But not obscene. Certainly not ban worthy in my opinion. But that's the problem with this sort of law. It's down to the personal taste of the reviewer since there can't be an objective measure for obscenity.

Not just that either. I like to be able to hear people over the game audio. I find that more easy to achieve with a headset.

It's softened somewhat by not having a ban on imports. But yeah, as I say,makes me feel uncomfortable when stuff gets outright banned, even if it is done with good intentions. (The road to hell and all that).

Yeah, it's something I have a little trouble with. Even extreme examples like "Human Centipede 2". I think the film is appalling and should never have been made, but I also don't believe in restricting people's right to make and watch crap. I mean, if I was in charge, Jersey Shore and all it's ilk would be banned as obscene. I rationalise it by saying that the Oz gov't (or UK gov't - the system is near identical) say "This goes against what the people who elected us believe in, so it will not be available for sale here." You can still quite legally import, own and use it. You just can't distribute it. Of course that's all justification and doesn't really change the fact that it is a bit... oppressiony.